Bradl to replace Crutchlow in Malaysia

Bradl to replace Crutchlow in Malaysia

HRC test rider Stefan Bradl will reunite with the LCR Honda team he participated with between 2012 and 2014 to replace the injured Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) at the Malaysian GP after the British rider suffered right ankle fractures in an FP2 crash at Turn 1 in Australia.

“[Cal’]’s fairly okay,” LCR Honda’s Oscar Haro told motogp.com. “I was with him, Luccio has stayed with him at the hospital. He wants to be in Valencia. He’s thinking of riding there. You know how these guys are, especially Cal, he’s a pitbull and he’s very keen to get back because he wants to defend the Independent riders title. It was a hard fall and it’s quite a complicated operation.

“They did the first operation tonight to fix the tibia back in place. The big break is below the tibia in the ankle. He’s broken the tibia, the malleolus. Surely, when they operate on him it will cause further injury to the ligaments and tendons and so we have to wait to see. I think it will be complicated for him to be in Valencia and we should be thinking about the Jerez test to test the new 2019 bike and think about 2019 because this year is now very complicated.”

Said Bradl: “First of all I want to say it’s a great pity for Cal because he was in good form after the podium in Japan and the last few races. I hope he has a speedy recovery. It’s a good opportunity for me, it’s a nice comeback (to the LCR Team) as we had three years together and there are a lot of people I know in the team. I also want to thank HRC and Lucio for reacting so quickly and professionally to this situation. Now let’s see what we can do, I’m looking forward to seeing the guys and working with them again.”